Latitude, longitude and time zone 13.08, 80.27
Asia/Kolkata · UTC+5:30
The date of a festival depends on the place.
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A tithi that ends at dusk in Chennai can still be running at dusk a thousand kilometres west, which moves the day. Sunrise and sunset here are computed for the place above.
When it falls next
Maharashtra calendar, computed for Chennai
- Sunday, 8 November 2026
- Thursday, 28 October 2027
- Tuesday, 17 October 2028
Where Narak Chaturdashi · Abhyang snan falls on the solar year, and how far the date moves between occurrences.
- 2026: 8 Nov
- 2027: 28 Oct, 11 days earlier
- 2028: 17 Oct, 10 days earlier
The days of Diwali in Maharashtra
Part of the same festival, in order, in the Maharashtra calendar
- Vasubaras · Govatsa Dwadashi …
- Dhanteras · Dhanvantari Jayanti …
- Narak Chaturdashi · Abhyang snan(this page) …
- Lakshmi Pujan …
- Balipratipada · Diwali Padwa …
- Bhau Beej …
The dates, year by year
Maharashtra calendar, computed for Chennai
What the day is
The fourteenth day of the dark fortnight of Kartika, the day Krishna killed Narakasura. The north calls it Chhoti Diwali or Roop Chaudas and keeps it as the small night before the great one, with the first lamps and a few crackers; the oil bath before dawn, the abhyanga snan, belongs to this day everywhere.
- Deity
- Krishna, Satyabhama, Yama
- Kind
- Festival Days of celebration: the house is decorated, a feast is cooked and the temple is visited.
Significance
Narakasura was the son of Bhudevi, the Earth, and grew into a tyrant who took the earrings of Aditi and held sixteen thousand women captive in his fort at Pragjyotisha, until Krishna, with Satyabhama driving his chariot, broke the fort and killed him. The tradition says that Krishna came home and bathed in oil to wash away the blood of the battle, and that the dying Narakasura asked for his death to be remembered with lights, which is how the dawn bath and the evening lamps came to this day. The north also calls it Roop Chaudas, the day of beauty, because the ubtan of gram flour, turmeric and oil rubbed in before the bath is meant to leave the body bright for the great night. In many northern homes the Yama lamp is lit tonight rather than on Dhanteras, an old lamp carried round the house by the eldest woman and set outside facing south to send poverty and untimely death out of the door, and some traditions keep the day as Hanuman Jayanti as well. In Maharashtra the morning is the abhyang snan, the first of the Diwali baths, and before it the karit, a small bitter wild fruit, is crushed under the left foot for Narakasura, the bitterness of the evil tasted and left behind.
How it is kept
The puja as a household does it, in order. Tick each step as it is done.
Narak Chaturdashi · Abhyang snan: how it is kept
Keep ready
- sugandhi tel, the scented oil
- utane of gram flour, turmeric, sandal and orange peel
- a karit for each member of the family
- a pat and rangoli colours
- an arati plate with a lamp for the aukshan
- new clothes
- pantis and the akashkandil
- the Diwali faral
The steps
0 of 7 done
What is cooked
The faral is eaten straight after the bath: chakli, chivda, karanji, besan and rava ladoo, shankarpali and anarse, made over the week before, with tea or coffee, and a festive lunch follows.
The hour
Clock times for Sunday, 8 November 2026 at Chennai
The Chaturdashi at sunrise for the northern reckoning; the bath is at arunodaya, before dawn. It can share a date with Diwali when the Chaturdashi holds the sunrise and the Amavasya reaches pradosha the same evening.
The main rite. The bath is taken before sunrise, at arunodaya, while the Chaturdashi runs; the fourteen lamps and the Yama lamp belong to the evening after sunset.
| Instant | Time | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Arunodaya | 04:29 | the 96 minutes before sunrise, the hour of the oil bath |
| Sunrise | 06:05 | the udaya tithi, the tithi running as the sun comes up |
| Pradosha kala | 17:40 to 20:04 | the 2 h 24 min after sunset, the evening worship hour |
Sunrise 06:05, sunset 17:40, UTC+5.5. These are the instants the rule is read at, not the temple's own puja times, which every temple prints for itself.
The day itself
| What | When | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Tithi | Krishna Chaturdasi from previous day 10:48 until 11:28 | then Krishna Amavasai until next day 12:32 |
| Nakshatra | Swati until next day 07:24 | then Vishakha until 2 days later, 09:19 |
| Rahu kaal | 16:13 to 17:40 (1 h 27 min) | the eighth of the daylight left alone for a beginning |
| Yamaganda | 11:53 to 13:20 (1 h 27 min) | the eighth ruled by Yama, also avoided |
| Gulika | 14:46 to 16:13 (1 h 27 min) | the eighth of Saturn’s son; what is done in it is said to repeat |
| Abhijit | 11:29 to 12:16 (0 h 46 min) | the midday muhurta, good for most things |
| Moonrise | 05:03 | moonset 16:51 |
For Sunday, 8 November 2026 at Chennai. A time marked "previous day" or "next day" is on the clock of that day.
The fast
No fast. The bath with sesame oil and ubtan comes first, and the lamps are lit at dusk.
What is avoided
Nobody sleeps past sunrise, since the bath after sunrise is held to lose its merit, and no money is lent after dark. Once the Yama lamp is set outside, no one turns to look at it or brings it back in.
The name
The same day, in every language that has a word for it
Where the regions differ
Tamil Nadu keeps this very morning as Deepavali, its main day; the north keeps the following evening as the main one. That is the whole of the difference between the northern and southern Diwali dates. Maharashtra keeps this morning as the abhyang snan: the body rubbed with utne, a paste of gram flour and herbs, then sesame oil, then a hot bath before dawn, and the Diwali faral eaten after it.
In other regions
- Tamil Nadu
- Tamil Nadu keeps this morning as Deepavali itself, with the Ganga snanam, the oil bath, before dawn, new clothes and the first crackers.
- Kerala
- Kerala keeps its Deepavali on this morning too, with the oil bath and the lamps, more lightly than Tamil Nadu.
- Telugu
- The Telugu country keeps Naraka Chaturdasi with the oil bath before dawn, new clothes and the first crackers of the year.
- Kannada
- Karnataka keeps Naraka Chaturdashi as the first day of its Deepavali, with the oil bath from the pots filled the night before.
- North India
- The Hindi belt keeps Chhoti Diwali or Roop Chaudas with the ubtan bath, the fourteen lamps and the Yama lamp, and Hanuman Garhi at Ayodhya keeps the day as Hanuman Jayanti.
- Maharashtra (the dates above)
- Maharashtra keeps the abhyang snan before dawn: the women of the house oil and anoint the men and the children, the utane is rubbed in, the karit is crushed underfoot, and the whole family sits down to the faral as the first crackers go off across the town.
- Bengal
- Bengal keeps the same day as Bhoot Chaturdashi, with fourteen lamps lit for fourteen generations of ancestors and fourteen greens eaten to keep the spirits of the night away.
- Sri Lanka
- The Tamil Hindus of Sri Lanka keep this morning as Deepavali, with the oil bath, the temple visit and the sweets shared with neighbours.
- Nepal
- Nepal keeps the same day as Kukur Tihar, when every dog is given a tika and a garland.
- Goa · Konkani
- Goa burns the Narkasur before sunrise: a tall effigy of the demon, built over weeks in every ward out of bamboo, paper, cloth and straw, carried to open ground and set alight in the dark, with the wards judged against each other for the making of it. The karit is crushed underfoot at the door, the abhyang snan follows, and the fov is eaten after the bath.
The dates above are the Maharashtra reckoning, because that is the calendar this key belongs to. Switch the tradition on the calendar page to see how another one dates the same day.
Greeting
What is said to family and friends on the day
दिवाळीच्या हार्दिक शुभेच्छाDiwalichya hardik shubhechchha
Where this day is kept
Nearest first from Chennai, with what is recorded about each.
Temples of Krishna near you
Not recorded for this day in particular: the nearest temples of the day's own gods, for a reader whose own temple is not listed above.
- Chennai, Tamil Nadu · Venkatakrishnan (Parthasarathy) with the arrow scars on his face
- Chennai, Tamil Nadu · The eight forms of Lakshmi in shrines on four floors, facing the sea
- Chennai, Tamil Nadu · Adhivyadhihara Bhaktha Anjaneyar, thirty-two feet tall from a single block of granite
- Chennai, Tamil Nadu · Neervanna Perumal below and Ranganathar on the hill, in four postures
Your family's own temple comes first, and its calendar is the one that decides.
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A temple is listed here only where the gazetteer's own line names this day, or where this day's own entry names the town, or where the day belongs to the ancestors or the nagas and the temple is recorded for that rite. Where neither table says anything, nothing is listed as kept for the day; where fewer than three are, the nearest temples of the day's own gods are added under a heading of their own.
Mantras
The prayers said with the day. Each opens with its words and meaning.
Every date here is computed from the Sun and Moon for the place entered, by the rule printed beside it.
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A printed panchangam can differ by a day where an almanac reads a tithi at a different instant, and a family's own custom always comes first. Where the practice genuinely varies, the text says so rather than choosing for you.